It was a stunt when Thomas Edison recorded "Mary Had a Little Lamb" onto a wax cylinder in 1875. Recorded words are an industry now. And yet the triumphant performances are rare—and getting rarer. This year David Case died. Name not ring a bell? Maybe you knew him as Frederick Davidson, Edward Raleigh, James Nelson or Ian McKay. Trollope was his favorite writer. The man, the voice—they both remained forever England.
Still, thankfully, there is Grover Gardner, PW's narrator of the year. He also goes by the noms de voix Alexander Adams and Tom Parker. Recording books since 1983, he's read for Hemingway, Faulkner and Henry James. This year's performances include Love Your God with All Your Mind (Hovel), Legends (Audio Partners), Sudden Death (Listen & Live Audio) and The Ice Harvest (Blackstone).
Audiofile magazine lists you as one of its golden voices, describing the sound you make as sandpaper and velvet.
[Embarrassed laughter] I don't know what that means. I do know that there's a little bit of nasality. I get teased about it. One friend said, "How can somebody who talks through his nose get as much work as you do?"
How many books have you recorded altogether?
It's over 550 books.
What do you find are the hardest voices?
The hardest voices that I've had to do were for the Young Jedi novels for Random House. I had to do all these alien voices [growling sounds]—they're guttural, with hissing and spitting. Doing Yoda was hard. Yoda talks like this... he does. And Jar Jar Binks. They wouldn't let us hear anything or see anything. All they gave us was the [film] trailer. The movie was embargoed. You weren't allowed to even talk about it.
Do you have trouble doing a woman's voice. Is that hard?
It's mostly about attitude. Women ask questions. Men lecture. Women want information. Men state facts. Woman want advice. Men, they've already decided.
Did training play a big part in your success?
I don't have any vocal training. That's my natural voice. First day when I went to college and walked into the radio station, you know, it was the same thing. They said, "What do you want to do?" [I was this] little kid with this great big voice.
